Hundreds demand justice over gender and caste violence

Ruth Lorimer reports from a demonstration in London earlier this week demanding justice for women raped and murdered in India.

Several hundred people, mostly Indian women from across the UK, demonstrated outside the Indian High Commission on Wednesday, demanding that the men who raped and hung two teenage girls in India last week be prosecuted.

The demonstration was organised by the Freedom Without Fear Platform, and supported by Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance, CasteWatch UK, South Asia Solidarity Group and Southall Black Sisters.

Many of those protesting were from the Dalit community (untouchable caste), and were born in India but live here. One woman I spoke to was saying the protest was as much about caste as about women’s rights, saying that even though they live here they haven’t managed to leave the caste system behind. Another said it was about women’s rights all over the world: “we’ve all got sisters, mothers, daughters, this has got to stop, and has to be taken seriously – no women, no world.”